The Truent Officer
by franki K
Summary: Who has the knowledge, or the power, to kidnap and restrain the Teen Titans so that they can't escape?... Apparantly the U.S. Government... And "No Child Left Behind"... rated K-plus, JIC... FIRST FIC! Please respond - be truthful, but be gentle.
1. Chapter 1

THE TRUENT OFFICER: INTERROGATION

A _Teen Titans _fan fiction mission. The team has been kidnapped, restrained in ways their powers/talents can't overcome, and interrogated by a man with a file. Timeline-wise, it takes place at some point after "Spellbound" and before "Titans East."

* * *

><p>The lights flicked on, waking him with a jolt. Or, at least, half of him. His human half glared about the white room in which he was sitting, stainless steel table before him, two-way mirror on the opposite wall, small camera in the upper right corner of the same wall.<p>

Cyborg didn't know where he was or how long he'd been out, but he knew for sure that something wasn't right. He was strapped to his chair, felt about two tons heavier than normal, and his vision was blurred. The camera watching him wasn't helping things, either. He decieded on trying to short it out with the new sonic transmitter he'd installed in his head the week before, but was met with a dull, unresponsive silence.

His mechanical half had been shut down, and was unable to reboot. He was a half-human attatched to a full ton of dead weight. He wasn't even sure how his human half had remained conscious, but he didn't like it.

A door off to the left opened and in walked a rough-looking man in a tan overcoat carrying a stack of files.

"Hello, Starfire" The man said as he walked into the room.

Though strapped to a the wall by energy beams that even her Tameranian streingth could not break, her distain for rudeness caused her to politely reply, "Hello, sir. May I ask, please, why I am entrapped here?"

"Trapped?" He sat at the table accross from her. "You're not trapped. You will be released, free as a bird, right after you answer a few questions for me."

"Questions? I'm afraid I do not understand."

"Understanding, that's a good word to start on. You're an Alien, correct?"

"As you may call it, yes. I come from the planet Tameran."

"How much do you understand about Earth's culture?"

She paused. "Well, I am still learning, though I believe I understand _enough_."

He rested his chin on laced fingers and reguarded the sweet, orange girl with a stern expression. "Do you know what people your age ususally do, instead of galavanting around, picking fights with criminals?"

She thought. She'd seen enough television to know that other teenagers constantly fell in and out of love, got prematurely pregnant, were often violent toward each other, and occasionally dealt with everyday life working around magical powers. However, she didn't believe that these were the answers this man was looking for. She thought harder. The thing that was always a constant in each of these shows was the setting of high school.

"They... go to school?"

"Very good, now answer me this; When was the last time _you_ were in school?"

"Uh, never," Beast Boy said, both groggy and annoyed.

"Never? Not even studying with private tutors?"

"Does training with the Titans and Doom Patrol count?"

"No."

"Oh. Then, nope!" He scratched at the welt on his neck where the dart had hit him. "Now that's settled, can I go home, Dude?"

Ignoring Beast Boy's question, the man asked his own. "Do you realize that's a crime?"

Though his whole body felt awkward and tired, he was suddenly alert "It's a what, now?"

"It's called Truency, and it's against the law. You Titans are too young to be out on your own, facing so much danger. It's a bad example for the children who watch you. You kids really ought to be in school, under the care of responsible adults."

"I really doubt either school or responsibility will be able to do much good in my life," Raven replied in a monotone dripping in distain.

"And how can you be so sure of that?"

She glanced down at her clenched fists for just a second, then glared back out of the psychic bubble in which she was being held. "Just trust me on this."

"Well, whether it helps or not, it _is_ the law. Isn't it a bad thing for a hero to break the law?"

"Who said I was a hero?"

"Who said it mattered? The bottom line is, you are going to school!"

"No."

The man's face turned red, but after a frustrated sigh, he calmed back down. "You see we have ways to hold you. We also have ways of making you do what needs to be done."

"I learn all I need to know from my friends, and the Monks of Azar. If you want to replace all that with logorithims and cheer squad, -"

"- you'll have to kill me, first," Robin finished, pulling hard as he could against the leather straps. Memories flashed of the prep school in Gotham, and trying to balance that with his night job, as well as attempting to have a personal life; It was one of the reasons he left for Jump City, and he wasn't about to do it all again.

The man shuffled the papers in his last file and smirked. "That can be arranged, you know."

"Alright, now I know somethin's up. Who are you working for?" Cyborg slumped forward in a position he intended to be intimidating, though mostly appeared rag-doll-like.

"The U.S. Government, of course."

"No, you're not! Regular truent officers don't just threaten your life! And I should know, I skipped pleanty before... Well, all of _this_." He gestured to himself with his chin. "There's gotta be someone else pulling your strings..."

"... Unless you're a spy! Are you a spy? 'Cause that would be awesome!... Well, not awesome for me, 'cause I'd probably get wacked... Wait, no, that's for industrial-age gangsters... Are you a gangster, like Babyface?"

The man glanced at the mirror behind him. "I'm going to need more tranquilizer." Then back to his subject, "Calm down, Green Boy, I ask the questions here."

"Uh, It's Beast Boy, and I'll never talk! Yeah, see, you can't make me!" He took on a twenties' gangster accent.

"I'm more worried about getting you to shut up."

"I am worried about my friends, please. Are they also being held in this torturous manner, being scolded with talk of the school?" Starfire's green eyes took on a slight glow of anticipation.

"I'll get to them in a bit. Now, you just stay put and answer a couple more questions like a good girl, and we can be done with this."

She winced at the condescending speech from her interrogator, but nodded, "Very well, you may continue."

"Good. Now, what do you like to do? What are your interests?"

"You're not seriously trying small-talk on me?" Raven groaned.

"My sources say you like reading. What do you read? Romance? Fairy Tales?"

"I've sworn off Fairy Tales. Bad experience with my last one."

"Too much of a happy ending?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Next question."

"What do you think of that Starfire? She's a pretty one, eh?"

Robin's eyes got wide behind his mask. He began to thrust around in his chair, resisting the straps that held him in. "What have you done with her? I swear, if you hurt her, I'll-"

"Yes? You'll what? Kill me? That'll give you a higher sentance than school, I'm afraid. Juvie. Jail, if they decide to try you as an adult. Or worse, depending on the city-state in which you are brought to justice."

"You're the one that should be brought to justice. Not me."

"I suppose it depends on how you define 'justice'. We all have a dark side, Robin." The man grinned. "Every one of us." As he grinned, Robin noticed the small dot of plastic inside the man's right ear. "Some, darker than others."

Robin narrowed his eyes. "Who do you work for?"

The man stood. "I believe I have all the information I need. We're done, for now. Take him back to his cell, boys."

The man left, and was replaced by two more in matching police uniforms. Robin ghasped at their outfits, then was silent as they rolled his strapped wheelchair from the room, down the corridor, into a small holding cell, separated by bulletproof glass from other cells - a total of five in the row. In each of the other four cells, he saw his teammates, restrained, but intact.

All were unconscious.

He was about to call out to them, when a voice came over a hidden intercom, "Nighty-night, Bird-Boy," as the room was filled with a thick, noxious gas. In moments, Robin was drifting into sleep, his last conscious thought resting on the police badges - and how they were on the wrong sides of their shirts.

To be continued...


	2. Chapter 2

THE TRUENT OFFICER: BEARINGS

_Author's Note: Most of this chapter takes place during Robin's in Interrogation. I.E. We are backtracking from the last chapter._

* * *

><p>The moon was high, though you'd never be able to tell through the inky clouds. The small slots of windows behind each of the clear-walled cells wasn't much for taking in a view - it was merely there for ventelation - though it seemed enough to drench the whole place in a clammy chill.<p>

The night-guard had fallen asleep on the job. After all, what was there to guard, when all your charge has been put under a fume-induced sleep?

At least, that's what he thought before closing his eyes.

As soon as Starfire was sure the guard was asleep, her eyes shot bolt open. The gas didn't seem to have any effect on her, but after seeing what it'd done to Cyborg in the next cell over the day before, she thought it best to play along. Now that all of her friends were at last together (well, more or less), she was sure she could somehow rouse them and their confidence to create an escape plan.

To her right, on the end, was Cyborg, slumped on the slab of a prison bed, and to her left, Best Boy. Of course, she would be stuck between the two hardest-to-wake members of the team.

She stretched against the energy beams holding her in place to get a better view. "Cyborg?" she asked quietly. "Cyborg, please, wake up."

"I _am_ awake, Star. Kinda hard to sleep in a place like this."

"Then why do you simply lie there? Why do you not attempt to break free? I am sure destroying the cell in which you are trapped would be 'Boo-ya'-worthy."

"I can't; my mechanical systems have been shut down. I can't even move."

"But... If this is true, how can you be awake?"

"Heck if I know. Look, the walls are bulletproof glass, but I don't think they could withstand starbolts. Why don't you just shoot at them yourself? You got eyebeams, right?"

"I am afraid my systems have also been shut down. I have tried, and they do not work, despite feeling more rightous fury than I have in a very long time."

"Huh, wonder why? I wonder how the others are effected?... Who's in the next cell?"

"Beast Boy. I have not yet attempted to wake him; he seemed the most chalanging."

"The boy _can_ sleep like a rock."

"I feel heavy as one, too," Beast Boy muttered from the next cell.

Starfire squirmed behind the energy beams to look to her left. Beast Boy was leaning up against the clear wall between the two Titans, his green cheek covered in a sheen of sweat as it pressed against the glass. "This is way worse than that time I got kidnapped by the zoo."

"Beast Boy! You are not restrained! You are free!"

BB tapped on the bulletproof glass.

"Well, Free-er."

"Good!" Cyborg shouted at the brick wall toward which his face had been turned. "Now turn your butt into a T-Rex and get us out of here!"

"Too... tired... "

"This ain't the time to get lazy, B.B.! You need to-"

"No, really, it takes more energy than I have to go big. Stupid tranquilizers."

"Alright, then go small. Get out through these air-holes and take the keys."

Beast Boy blinked. "Uh, I knew that. Well, I woulda, eventually." He stood up, wobbly and staggering, and was about to change into a fly, when - nothing. He furrowed his brows, then concentrated on something else: a mouse. But, again, nothing. Same with the snake, the gerbil, the amoeba, the bird, the squirrel, and the fish. Nothing.

This whole time, while trying to become any small animal possible, Beast Boy stood their grunting, groaning, and slowly falling into a squatting position.

"Nice, Beast Boy," Raven said from the next cell. "This isn't the time or place for a bathroom break."

The sudden sound of her voice startled Beast Boy, and he fell over. "Great, you made me lose concentration! Now I have to start over... Come on, newt!"

"You're wasting your time. None of our powers work. You're just making a monkey of yourself."

"I'll show _you_ monkey!" Beast Boy successfully shifted into a green orangutan. Raven's eyes widened in surprise, and he crossed his arms and stuck out his tongue in response.

"Okay," She started, after some quiet contemplation. "I was half-wrong."

Beast Boy returned to human shape, already seeming to get over the latest tranq injection. "Half-wrong? No way, Raven! You can't call half-wrong! I let you get away with that on the tomato-fruit-vegetable thing, you're not getting away with it twice in a row!"

"Well, you can turn into things of your own relative weight and size, but nothing bigger or smaller. Cyborg's mechanical half is down, but his human half is still going. Starfire's starbolts and my magic aren't working, but if she weren't on that energy board, and I wasn't inside this psychic bubble, I bet we could both still fly."

"Alright, fine, Rae. You got your Half-right. Another one, and you get a free ice-cream. But how's that gonna help us get out of here? And how do you think Robin will be effected? He doesn't have any powers."

The conversation was interrupted by a distant slam of a metal door. Beast Boy gave out a monkey screech. "Quick everyone! Play dead!" He attmepted to turn into a possum, but was met with more resistance from his shifter. "Dang it!" He layed down.

The buzz of the intercom beside the main door woke the night-guard, who glanced at his charge, still in the same place he'd last seen them. He smiled with a job-well-done, then answered the buzz.

"_Hey, Rick, how's the babysittin' job going?_"

"Cake. Not a peep out of 'em."

"_Good! Got another for ya._"

"Bring 'em in!"

The intecom buzzed again, and Rick opened the door for the other guard, who had his hands full of wheelchair handles. In the chair was a strapped-down, determined Robin, who seemed to be contemplating something very deeply. He got wheeled into the very center of the empty cell on the other side of Raven's, and the two new guards left.

Robin leaned forward as far as the straps would let him to look down the line, seeing the state of his friends. Outside the cells, Rick had mysteriously pulled a sandwich from who-knows-where. Before taking a bite of the turkey on sourdough, he clicked a new button on the intercom, one that linked it to the cells, and said, "Nighty-night, Bird-Boy," laughing nastily as he pressed another button that filled the whole cell with a sticky green gas.

Robin was soon knocked out.

About an hour later, after Rick had finished his sandwich and taken in another nap, Robin stirred. He groaned. He would've held his aching head, if he'd had a free hand.

"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty," Cyborg said from the other end of the line. After twenty minutes' struggle, he'd managed to turn his head away from the bricks.

Robin groaned. "How long was I out?"

"About an hour." Raven answered.

He shook his head. "Then it's obvious that wasn't knock-out gas they hit me with... What was it, really? And where are we?"

"I do not know," Starfire said. "But are you okay? They did not hurt you?"

"I'm fine, Star... Which is enough to warrant confusion."

"You think _you're_ confused? Dude! Just wait 'till you hear about our powers!" Beast Boy grabbed his hair.

"What about them?"

"They're half-gone! And Raven's two-thirds of the way to a free ice-cream because of it!"

"Half-gone? What do you mean?"

Beast Boy took in a deep breath. "Well, Cyborg's now just a 'Borg, 'cause all his Cy-stuff is dead, so now he's all half-human-half-nothing, and Starfire's offensive powers, her starbolts and, I dunno whatcha call 'em, 'eye-bolts' are gone, but she's still in the glowy-straps, so we think she can still fly and has alien strength, so that's a plus, but it's not gonna help much because Raven's spooky-glowy magic is on the fritz, and not like that time she was scared, this is way lamer, but she could probably levetate if it weren't for that psycic hampsterwheel thing, and my shifting is all wacked out, because I can only shift shape, not size, and now I'm stuck being Garfield the Goat-Boy!" Distraught and out of breath, Beast Boy fell on his face.

"Wait," Raven stopped him. "Somewhere in there, did I here a 'Gar-' "

"So,Robin," Beast Boy interrupted her, " what's _your_ problem?"

Robin's eye twitched. "I don't have any powers, Beast Boy."

"That doesn't mean you can't get effected," Cyborg said. "I mean, look at me."

"But that also does not mean we should do nothing," Starfire piped up. "After all, we still have half our powers."

"Sure, Starfire," Raven said skeptically, "But we're all restrained against what powers we have left. _What_ would we do?"

"Well, I believe I have the plan," Starfire said. In response the others simply stared with large, somewhat disbelieving eyes; after all, it's not often that Starfire offers a plan.

Robin was the first to speak after this. "Well, alright Star. It's your mission. What do we do first?"

Starfire gave one of her rare sly smiles and nodded. "Very well."

To be continued...


	3. Chapter 3

THE TRUENT OFFICER: ESCAPE

* * *

><p>"So, what's the plan, Star?" Cyborg asked.<p>

"Well, if we cannot free ourselves, perhaps we can free each other."

"These are the perfect traps for our powers," Raven said. "We're open to suggestions."

"Well, it would seem that you and Beast Boy have the highest level of freedom."

"Okay, Beast Boy, I get, but me? I'm in a psychic bubble." She gave the wll of it a rippling whack to prove her point.

"Well," Beast Boy chimed in, "You could always hampster-ball it!"

"Not helping."

"No," Starfire said, "He is correct. The roundness could allow you great mobility."

Raven sighed. The inside of the psychic bubble had been fairly anti-grav, so she wasn't sure if the floating that came from her powers would have any real effect. But she extended her legs from their meditating position and struggled against the weightlessness to touch the ground. Instead, she found herself hanging inside like a doll from a string. "I feel rediculous."

"Come on, Rae," Beast Boy said, suddenly very serious as he pushed his gloved fingers through the air holes in the window separating the two Titans. "You can do it. It's just like the hampster ball I keep around for boring Saturday nights. You just push against the side and go."

"Just concentrate, Raven," Robin said from the other side of her. "It's just like levetating backwards."

"how would _you_ know?" she retorted.

"We have faith in you." he answered, ignoring the retort.

"Yeah, you can do it, girl!" Cyborg confirmed, his head inclining slightly.

"You can and must do it, Raven," Starfire said. "You have our every support."

Raven's cheeks took on a sheen of red. She'd never liked being the center of attention, though it felt good to know her friends had so much faith in her. She'd need it before too long. Still, to find her center and solitude, and somewhat escape the eyes of the people she was afraid of letting down, she pulled up her hood to concentrate.

"_Azerath Metrion Zinthos!_" She pressed her mind against the cealling of the bubble, and slowly floated to the bottom. The very toes of her boots barely brushed the concrete texture pressing in on the psychic field. It was enough. She took a few steps forward, and the bubble followed, no pushing required.

"Yeah, Raven!" Beast Boy cried, and the others were quick to second his motion, but the jubilation stopped short as Rick the night guard shifted in his sleep.

Raven glanced at her friends, her eyes still glowing white. "This feels really strange. Not sure how long I can keep it up. What's next, Starfire?"

"Beast Boy, what can you become that has sharp claws?"

"Uh, gimme a second, here." He tried several combinations of animal, searching for one that his half-working power could use, and finally landed on a larger-than-life eagle with sharper-than-usual tallons.

"Now, Raven, you must work with Beast Boy to release yourself from the bubble."

"Um, alright..." she steered the bubble towards Beast Boy's cell. He perched on a rusty sink and stuck one tallonned foot through an air hole and started scratching the bubble's surface. He soon retracted his foot with a screech, and fell off the sink as a boy.

"Dude! That thing burnt me!"

"But it worked... a little bit." Raven examined a small scratch that had been left by the green bird, and the area around it that had turned red. This gave her an idea. "It's a psychic bubble. Just another force of mental energy. I'm going to try to create a psychic link to it, to find out where it originated." She pulled her legs back up into meditating position and placed her hands over the injured spot. A few seconds later, sparks flew from the point where the prisoner and prison were connected, that shot both flying accross the cell.

"Raven!" Robin cried, "Are you alright?"

"I can't do it." she answered, her monotone voice taking on a lower frequency of dispair.

"Come on, Rae," Cyborg shouted. "We said we have faith in you! Now use it! Get yourself, and the rest of us, out of here!"

"No. I can't do that, again."

Beast Boy growled under his breath. "Okay, if you won't, I will." He then morphed into the longest, heaviest python of a snake he'd ever become, and squirmed through the air hole into Raven's cell.

"What are you doing?" Raven cried.

Beast Boy morphed into a bobcat with heavy claws, and started slashing at the psychic membrane of the ball.

"No, stop! I can't - _You_ can't- Just don't-"

Beast Boy kept swiping at the prison, and the more he did, the redder it became. There were large, visible tears in it, and structural integrity was rapidly declining.

"Beast Boy, stop! You're going to-"

The bubble gave into his scrapes, and ended up exploding, throwing the two teens against opposite walls of the cell, breaking through the bulletproof glass, levelling everything within a fair-sized radius with its shock-wave. Robin's strapped wheelchair, as well as Starfire's energy board, were both destroyed instantly (though, surprisingly, none of the Titans recieved worse than a couple scratches and bruises - or, in Cyborg's case, a few dents).

One fatal swipe to the non-coporial shield had set them all free.

Or, at least, got them started on the road to freedom.

About two seconds after their ears stopped ringing from the blast, they heard another loud, startling sound; that of emergency alarms going off all around the building.

Surely, Rick the night guard could not be expected to sleep through _that_ cocoghany.

He stood there, staring, his hand still trembling on the alarm switch, as the Titans rose from the wreckage. All began looking to Robin for orders, though, an instant later, continued looking at him for another reason completely.

"It's Starfire's mission - but I'd suggest escaping, somehow - ventelation shaft's our best bet... okay, what? Why are you guys looking at me that way?"

The entire left half of Robin's face was scrunched up in the most maniacal grin they had ever seen on him, while the other half was normal. No one had the heart to tell him first.

"Um, no time for explaining," Starfire said, flying up and grabbing him before entering the vent shaft above them. "Come with me, please."

Beast Boy looked at Raven, who was struggling with Cyborg's two-ton body. "I still don't think that should count toward the ice-cream thing."

"Not the time, Beast Boy! Help me with Cyborg!"

"Man, this ain't fair!" Cyborg shouted as the green wolf wedged under his arm. "You all got outa your prisons! I _am_ my prison! I cannot stay all halfed-out like this!"

"Not the time, Cyborg! Can you lean a bit more on Beast Boy?"

Starfire returned from the vent shaft to get Cyborg, who she picked up by the scruff of the mechanical neck with ease, and took him to the shaft. Raven and eagle-Beast-Boy followed.

Inside the shaft, Starfire'd taken the lead, with Robin at her side, and Cyborg riding piggy-back, as she crawled through dust and cobwebs a-pleanty.

Behind them, Beast Boy crawled quickly to catch up to Raven, and dominated the conversation stream.

"... But, seriously, Dudes, why are these things never guarded, or booby-trapped, or something? This scene is in, like, every spy movie, and no one ever says anything, but how long before it becomes a cliche`? 'Cause if it were up to me, I'd have all my shafts wired, with, like, barbs and motion-detectors and stuff, so no one could ever sneak in. Hey, Cy, why don't we have something like that in the Tower? I bet if we did, we wouldn't be _here_... wherever here is..."

"Beast Boy," Raven muttered. "Shut up."

"Aw, come on, Raven. Are you still mad I popped your bubble? You know, you should be thanking me. In fact, you should _all_ be thanking me! If I hadn't scratched that thing to death, we'd probably all be in plaid uniforms, talking about prom right now! I totally saved all our skins! I think a 'Thank You' is in order."

"My hero." Raven groaned sarcastically. It wasn't exactly a "Thank You," but he knew that was the most he'd get from her - at least while the others were around.

Beast Boy rolled his eyes and kept crawling. "You know, the factors all add up... the high-tech security system. The 'truent-officer' facade. The ventalation cliche`! These dudes are definately spies! I mean, think about it! They-" he was cut off as the sole of Robin's boot met with his face.

"Robin! What the heck! I wasn't being _that_ loud!"

"What are you talking about, Beast Boy?"

"What do you mean, what am I talking about? You just _kicked_ me in the _face_!"

"What? No, I didn't!"

"There's a footprint on my forehead that says otherwise."

"I swear, It wasn't me," Robin stated harshly, just as his left foot swung for Beast Boy's head a second time.

"Dude!"

"Um, I actually saw that, too," Raven offered. "And, sure, I can see why you'd _want_ to, but maybe you should wait until the bad guys are in jail, and we're free before killing our morpher."

Robin abruptly stopped crawling, sending Beast Boy's face planting into his butt. "Aww, dude, you really gotta warn a guy!"

Robin sat and turned to face his friens. His left arm was curled up, twitching against his chest. "Guys? I think something's wrong with me."

There followed an _oh, crap_ pause.

"Well," Cyborg broke the silence. "Join the club."

Just then, the floor of the air vent gave, sending the five heroes toppling down, landing in a heap on a cold, concrete floor. Then came a familliar voice.

"Hello, my duckies."

* * *

><p>To be continued...<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

THE TRUENT OFFICER: SURPRISE

_Author's note: I'm not sure that "smarmed" is a word, but it works where it is used... it is a verbal variant of the adjective "smarmy" meaning "cocky and a bit annoying"... past tense of "To Smarm"... maybe the _Young Justice_ Robin should pick that one up!_

* * *

><p>Mad Mod wasn't the only villain standing before the team of young heroes; he was accompanied by The Puppet King, Mumbo Jumbo, and Adonis.<p>

The quartet of wrongdoers leered down at the pile of Titans, exerting what they considered their superiority over them teens.

"Wait," Cyborg shot off. "_These_ are our bad guys? They're-"

"Pathetic." Raven finished. "There's no way you four were able to do all of _this_."

"Dude!" Beast Boy shouted, muffled. "Get your iron butt off my face!" Starfire wriggled out of the pile and attempted to untangle her friends.

"We are not alone in our endevors," The Puppet King creeped.

"We've got ourselves... a bit of a sponsor," Mumbo added.

Robin lunged forward in anger. "What are you planning?"

"Yeah, right, like we'd tell _you_ weaklings!" Adonis shot, flexing metalic pectorals.

Beast Boy bristled. "We're not _that_ weak! If it weren't for the half-power thing, that will _not_ get Raven a free ice-cream, we could kick all your butts easy!"

Raven elbowed him. "For Azar's sake, Beast Boy! Drop the ice-cream thing."

"Please," Starfire took a determined step forward, a glint in her eye that had nothing to do with starbolts. "Whatever you have planned, know that it will not work. You would do better to surrender, now."

"Little snots!" Mod laughed. " 'Ow do you plan on takin' us down when you can't keep yourselves standin' up?" He gestured to Cyborg with his cane.

Starfire's eyes narrowed. She felt, now more than ever, that is really _was_ her mission. She gave the order. "Titans, go!"

"Don't think so!" Mod pressed the jewel on his cane, and another psychic bubble appeared around Raven. She punched the wall, which punched her back with its new, improved model of membrane.

Robin leaped forward, and was about to throw a punch, when the Puppet King lifted his control. The fist in Robin's left hand was redirected to his own face, and his left foot to his own hindquarters. He was then hog-tied with his own limbs.

"Ha!" Beast Boy lept into the air, ready to shift into something of appropriate size and ferocity. "Try takin' _me_ down!" From an unseen source came a high-pitched woosh sound, followed by a dart implanting itself in Beast Boy's neck. He landed on his face, nearly unconscious from the tranquilizer on its tip. "I... Will not... be silenced..." he muttered groggily, then, thumb in mouth and bum in air, fell asleep on the cold floor.

Starfire was torn between setting down Cyborg's dead-weight body to fight, or calling retreat. But before she could make a decision, Cyborg's darkened circuts suddenly took on light, once again - albiet, a _red_ light. He stood on his own, looking very confused about his sudden mobility that he didn't seem to have any control over. Accross the corridor, Adonis held in his own metal hands a large joystick, portraying the same red circuts as those that decorated his own body.

"Aww, man. Not again." He was soon walking into walls, smacking his own face.

"Why you hittin' yourself? Why you hittin' yourself? Why you hittin' -" Adonis was having too much fun, but was cut off by Mumbo Jumbo.

"Knock it off! Surely, you can think of a better trick to do witht that toy?"

"Um..." he paused. "Oh, I know!"

Adonis squirrelled the joystick around, causing Cyborg to reel back on Starfire, taking swings and blasting at her. "That's not cool!" Cyborg shouted, "Star, I swear, I am _not_ doing this!"

Starfire bobbed and weaved every advance. "I know, Cyborg. And _you_," She addressed the villain group as a whole, "If you do not stop the madness soon, you shall have _me_ to answer to!"

"How can we stop," Mumbo Jumbo grinned, "When we're having so much fun? Mumbo Jumbo!" He pulled his majic wand on her. A zap of lightning engulfed Starfire, and when the light receeded, she was revealled to be the size of a pencil, _and_ trapped inside a thin, rectangular case, decorated to look like the queen of hearts. She landed on the floor, pounding against the case's window. From yet another unseen source, a mysterious round of applause rose, to which Mumbo bowed.

"So you see, Titans, that you are out-matched," spoke the Puppet King.

"Out-matched, _and_ out-smarted!" Smarmed Mad Mod. (see Author's note explaining "Smarm")

"You don't desserve to wear that uniform!" Beast Boy shouted in his sleep, then went back to semi-quietly sucking his thumb.

"Out-matched, _and _out-smarted?" Adonis questioned, as he moved Cyborg to sit down with his head leaning against a the wall so that his cries of outrage could be muffled. "Isn't that a bit redundant?"

"Oh, joy," Mumbo said, "Our latest attraction, the brainless brawn using words like _redundant_."

Mad Mod swung his cane at his teammates, "Oi! This ain't the time for a grammar lesson! We got the Titans to teach a lesson to!"

"And besides," The Puppet King groaned, "The Boss swore that one more disagreement would cause him to back out on his deal - with _all _of us."

"Wait!" Adonis held up a hand the size of a manhole cover. "Where'd Bird Boy go?"

Hero and villain alike searched the room to the full extent of their individual visual mobility (which wasn't much, for many of them), to find that Robin had, indeed, disappeared.

After a moment, Mad Mod waved the situation away. "Eh, who needs 'im. We got the rest a the lot, and 'e won't be much good on his own."

The Puppet King rose his control once more. "Especially not after _I'm_ done with him..."

"Right, you deal wiff 'im, we'll take this lot back to detention. Muscle-Man, you take those two."

"Sure thing, English Dude." Adonis picked up Cyborg and flung him over his shoulder, despite his cries of cruel injustice, and Beast Boy took the other shoulder, muttering something about "Stupid, dumb Romulans."

Mumbo Jumbo claimed the Queen of Stars playing card, while Mad Mod rolled the Raven Ball down the corridor.

"You know," Adonis crooned, "If it weren't for this green duddy, I'd have _you_ on my arm, instead, my Angel of Darkness."

Inside the bubble, where Raven'd been trying all forms of meditation to reclaim her powers and escape her new prison, she now sat in mid-air, one elbow rested on her knee, holding her head. She rolled her eyes and groaned a sarcastic, "Charmer. Flattery will get you nowhere."

"Where are we taking the little escape artists?" Mumbo inquired.

"Well," Mod started, "Since they _destroyed_ our detention facility, we're gonna have to take 'em to see the Boss 'imself."

As they walked, they passed a small door in the wall, barely big enough for a decorative lamp to fit through. No one looked at it, no one even knew it was there. But behind it, a relieved, yet frightened, and somewhat cramped Robin sat in the dumbwaiter, waiting for his chance. As the group and his friends left the field of vision allowed through the tiny crack in the door, he let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

He'd been straddling a chain that ran through the compartment, and he now started pulling on this to try and move position in the mystery building, but before he could gain any ammount of distance, his left arm shot straight out and punched the metal siding, giving off a loud _bang_. Robin grabbed his arm to make it be still, but it was too late. The Puppet King ripped the doors open with more force than you'd expect him to be able to offer, groaning and shuddering against their rusty tracks.

He stared in at Robin, his head tilted and one eye drooping slightly. "Heeeere's Johnny!"

Meanwhile, the rest of the team was deposited in a large, empty, dimly-lit concrete room. The only light came from a naked, low-watted bulb at the end of a very, very long electrical wire. Accross the room, a single, small light was glowing.

No, not glowing. Shining. Like the reflection off an eye.

"Hello, again, Titans," came the familliar voice.

The team, minus Robin, ghasped in horror. Starfire was the first to speak the obvious.

"Slade! He has returned!"

"For goodness' sake," Raven closed her eyes. "Don't tell Robin."

Beast Boy shot up with his index finger extended, "Engage!" then dropped back to sleep.

To be continued...


	5. Chapter 5

THE TRUENT OFFICER: SLADE

* * *

><p>The large room, still kept in darkness, seemed to spin as Beast Boy's shape-shifter metabolism finally burnt off the last of the tranquilizer. He blinked and looked around. "Um, where am I? And why do I feel like drinking Earl Grey tea?" He was suddenly hit with a post-tranq migrane, and went to hold his head, but found instead that he could not move. He wriggled about, and shifted into everything his half-working powers allowed, but he still could not move.<p>

"What the heck is going on?" He sniffed the air. "No way... Am I seriously _glued_ to a _wall_?"

"There was enough tranquilizer on the tip of that dart to down an elephant for eight hours," Said a voice from the shadows. "And yet, _you_ burnt through it in two. And that was at only half-use... Power like that, you must be proud."

"Huh?" B.B. was still half asleep, and was confusing the events of a few hours ago with the things in his dreams. But he finally came to, at the mention of his half-power. "Ice Cream! I mean, Raven! I mean, my friends!"

* * *

><p>"What have you done with my friends?" Starfire demanded from inside the card case.<p>

"Oh, they're safe," Said the voice. "They're being held, safe and sound."

"I do not believe you."

"I promise you on my life's blood that they are safe... For now."

Starfire banged on the case window, which withstood her alien streingth with ease. "No!"

* * *

><p>"What are you planning?" Raven's voice was the softest, yet most frightening it had ever been, like the quiet before a storm.<p>

"Haven't you figured it out, yet? You're smart, aren't you?"

"I have it half-figured out. Whatever you have planned, you won't get away with it... _Slade._"

Out of the shadows stepped the rough-looking man in the tan overcoat, face emotionless, but for one smiling eye.

"Figures."

* * *

><p>"I knew he wasn't a real truent officer!" Cyborg shouted. "Just a psycho in disguise."<p>

"Retrospect often gives twenty-twenty vision." Slade said matter-of-factly. "Tell me, Cyborg. Where is Robin?"

"I don't know. He disappeared during the fight that stopped before it started... And, besides, if I knew, do you think I'd tell _you_?"

Slade pressed Cyborg's motionless head hard against the wall, and stared his one eye into the other's one eye. He asked again, "Where is Robin?"

* * *

><p>"He's probably everywhere," Beast Boy said, "The dude's a ninja."<p>

"You know how he thinks. That's good."

"Did I say that? No, I just meant, he's always sneakin' up on... erm... I mean, I'll never talk! Yeah, see, ya can't make me!" He took on a twenties gangster accent.

Slade pulled a gun from his overcoat pocket, and pressed it to Beast Boy's temple. "Oh, yes, I can."

A chicken screech escaped Beast Boy's throat, and he muttered, "I _was_ getting read to ask for a bathroom break, but... well... never mind."

* * *

><p>"Believe me, if I knew where Robin was, I would go and find him," Starfire assured. "And join him in defeating you!"<p>

Slade turned the card upside down, sending Starfire toppling onto her head. "And I assure _you,_ I will find and defeat _him_."

"No!"

"Yes. And you are going to help me."

* * *

><p>"Unlikely," Raven said, and spun inside her bubble so that her back was turned.<p>

"Oh, it is more likely than you'd think."

"How do you plan on doing that? First of all, I still don't know where he is, and even if I did, there's no way you could make me help you. Years of training have allowed me to withstand any form of torture - just as a side-effect. Do your worst."

"Oh, I never expected you to help me, willingly. That is why I have _this_."

Raven's eyes went wide. "Oh... Didn't see that coming."

* * *

><p>Cyborg started to freak. "Woah, woah, what do you plan on doing with that?"<p>

"Nothing, really, just a transfusion. Now hold still," Slade placed the odd contraption on Cyborg's head. "This won't hurt a bit. At least, I don't believe so. I've never tried it, so I don't know for sure."

"Wait, wait!"

Slade put on another helmet of similar design, connected to the first by wires and tubes. He flipped a switch, cogs and electrodes came to life, as several strategically-placed needles shot out of the walls of the helmet, and into Cyborg's head. Cyborg writhed in pain, groaning loudly, shuttering and shaking all accross his surface, despite the heavy limbs.

Inside, he felt something change, like an emptiness growing, as a concentrated green substance travelled along the tubes, and into a motionless Slade's own adornment. His eye rolled back into his head as the power filled his being.

Then, as suddenly as the thing had started, it stopped. The needles retracted slowly, and Slade removed the two contraptions. "Thank you, Cyborg. I now have only one power left to gain. You really are _too_ kind."

Cyborg hang against the shackles of his own body weight, sighing in dispair as Slade left with a chuckle. The door closed, and he was all alone in the room, literally powerless.

* * *

><p>In a conferance room two floors up, the incompotent lackeys were on break. In a small room with a coffee maker, broken microwave, and a vending machine that only served vegan snacks, three villains entertained themselves.<p>

Mumbo Jumbo was shooting a cup of coffee with his magic wand in attempt to make it more pallatable. Adonis admired himself in the vending machine window. Mad Mod was getting fed up at calling every restaurant in town, and having them all refuse to having "Bangers and Mash" on their menus.

In their minds, they had already won, and were just waiting around for the payment after the project was through.

Then in walked the Puppet King. His face was dented and scratched, his clothes torn, and one of his arms was missing. In response to his temporary teammates' questioning stares, he told them, "Robin has escaped me. And he has the control."

"And your arm," Adonis added the obvious.

"Whiney git!" Mod exploded. "If the boss finds out we lost 'im, it'll be our own necks! Come on, lads, we'll find 'im before 'e does!"

The four villains ran out of the break room to join the hunt, unaware of the eyes watching them.

To be continued...


End file.
